'The Office' to 'Mad Men': TV Guide to Career Advice - Lesson 4 of 8

Modern Family

Jesse Tyler Ferguson as Mitchell Pritchett (ABC)

Lesson: Find some life-work balance

Last season, Mitchell quit his job as an overworked corporate lawyer to spend more time with his partner, Cam, and their daughter Lily. He was so unhappy that he did the right thing by leaving, says McKee. “If your boss is continuously treating you like a doormat, you need to have a plan to move on. Otherwise your family loses, it can affect your health and performance, and you might end up getting fired anyways,” says McKee.

But Mitchell got one thing wrong: He waited so long to leave that he wound up quitting in a huff (and without a plan), leading to a longer-than-planned unemployment. You can see his attempt to go back to work — taking another stab at work-family balance — in the clip below.

Amy Levin-Epstein is a freelance writer who has been published in dozens of magazines (including Glamour, Self and Redbook), websites (including AOLHealth.com, Babble.com and Details.com) and newspapers (including The New York Post and the Boston Globe). To read more of her writing, visit AmyLevinEpstein.com. Follow her on Twitter at @MWOnTheJob.